Joba, Jeter hit the streets

Saw this comment from Buster Olney:

Heard this: If all goes well in spring training for the Yankees, Joba Chamberlain is likely to start next season in the Yankees' bullpen, as part of the team's effort to limit his innings. Chamberlain will go to spring training and, at the outset, prepare to pitch out of the rotation, along with five other rotation candidates -- Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes, Mike Mussina and Ian Kennedy. Assuming that none of the other five has a physical or performance breakdown, Chamberlain would then open 2008 in the bullpen, as a set-up man, for at least the start of the season -- under the Joba Rules.

The Yankees want to restrict the number of innings Chamberlain throws, and working him out of the bullpen for at least a couple of months will allow them to do that. Chamberlain may return to the rotation sometime in the middle of the season, depending on the Yankees' needs.

I have said this along.

Santana

Pettitte

Wang

Mussina

Free agent

Kennedy AAA rehab

Chamberlain in relief

I wonder if there's any merit to that. I've learned to not trust Olney very often though...but that does make sense given that the Yanks have an extra starter, and they need bullpen help, and Joba has already proved to be a viable bullpen option.

Although I stick to my feeling that Joba in the bullpen would be a waste of two other pitches he has. He's build to be a starter.

Who would we get as the FA bpark? Why not give Kennedy the #5 spot? I don't see why not, unless he tanks in spring training.

I think Curtly Ambrose has just been signed.

I like this one better

Pettitte

Wang

Hughes

Kennedy

Mussina

did you guys know that mussina scored a perfect 1600 on his SAT's??!?!?

my opinion Joba is not suited at this time to be a starter. I would not bet the farm that he could not become a starter. He is a young pitcher so a lot can happen. But he has to tone down his emotions and slow the adrenalin down he has when he is on the mound. You have to pace yourself. When it comes to pitchers, never take one when they are young and have arm problem(I.E Mark Prior) Get Santana and the Yanks can wipe that smirk of off David Ortiz and Beckett face. That all I want the Yanks to do is to kick Boston A_ _. They remind me of the Detroit Pistons with those smirks on their faces.

Ambrose will be the #1 pitcher

Ambrose

Santana

Pettitte

Wang

Mussina

i have been under a rock, have we acquired santa?
is petitte loved once agian?

arod in movies/TV shows?

clemens no longer our problem??

anything i missed, yanke captain spoke nicely about arod,mo po,joe.

i live in oriole country and folks here are crazy torn about their brian robberts.

he is like their mini cal ripken kind of guy, their jeter, he is the face of the club, (and oh yeah a fram system product, 3 time allstar) of the feild just like jeter "boys club" cancer etc....

all else is kool, i guess

eid mubarik day3

Bryan,

Are you taking some days off over christmas or will you be on as news warrents?

Screw ESPN, they're making a big deal the Clemins and more importantly to me Pettite aren't hin Grimsley's report, they need to get off their backs honestly.

I'll be on call - like all the MLB.com reporters - but teams are discouraged from announcing moves during the holidays. In theory it'll be quiet ... but you never know ...

I had a feeling Joba would start the season in the bullpen, it makes sense to me. I don't see a reason why the Yankees should rush Joba to be a starter, I think it is smart to start him off slow, just not TOO slow, like last season's inning per game, those Joba Rules were annoying.

It makes no sense having Hughes and Joba pitch 5 innings and then the pen gets worn out. Curtly Ambrose can pitch 9 innings each start.

So no christmas eve Santana deal?

clemens said no
petitte said yes

but both involved with same guy

and both are best friend-pitchers.

who to beleive.....

All I want for Christmas is Johan for Jeff Karstens and Matt DeSalvo. Is that really too much to ask?

I think that it's a good idea to start Joba slow. But I do want to see what he has as a starter. That's what he is. We don't need to Papelbon this kid.

I agree I don't think the BP is so bad, or un-fixable that we need to cage Joba into the pen. He would definitly better the pen, and succeed there, but he can truely dominate as a starter. His fire may need a little bit of controlling, but I think he is mature enough to handle himself, I mean he was a starter his whole life. I still think the BP can do well without Joba in it, especially if we go get another arm. I wish the higher-ups persued players like Marte with the same interest as Johan, I know they're not comparable but the need for a lefty BP arm is more pressing. I'm not saying move Hughes, Kennedy etc. for Marte but the Yankee brass needs to prioratize better.

I'll second that...Marte would be a great addition to the pen...a lefty who could also set up Mo.

As for Joba. Let him start! He's a starter, so I'm not worried about him pacing himself...he's knows what he's doing, because he's been doing it for years. Its not like we're converting a reliever to a starter, we're letting Joba back into the rotation after a brief stint as a reliever...he's been a starter his entire pitching career.

Chaz, I have Johan for Farnsworth straight up on my christmas list hahaha. Maybe for a new years present, I'll throw in Karstens! I can dream...

But for real, a more practical Christmas gift would be Marte. He probably wouldn't cost us anything we can't replace...I'm so sick of talking about either Santana or the Mitchell Report, lets make a new subject: I want to see what you guys think about a possible trade package for Marte. I really have no idea, so I'm going to take a shot in the dark. Maybe DeSalvo, Karstens, Gonzalez, and Marquez? Like I said, a complete shot in the dark, so don't attack me. What would you guys offer for Marte?

I really think if we can get one more good, experienced reliever, this team will be set for 08.

DeSalvo is not with the club.

The only problem with Marte is that we've been trying to get him for three years and for whatever reason we've been unsuccessful. I dont know if we'll need to pony that much up for him, but I don't know. I think two or three of those guys would be a legit deal, but it seems Pitt wants to hold onto him so it may take that much to pry him.

Is that like a verb now? To papelbon?

Jeter said something interesting. That Girardi will just be Joe to him. I find that weird to call your manager by his first name and be just friends with him. All the new guys who might not have played with Girardi might also get the hang of calling him Joe. If you would call President Bush, Georgie that’s kind of demeaning and if Joe is called Joe he isn’t being treated like a manager and so he might not always act like one. Call me traditional…

I'm sending out a christmas gift to y'all via email. Be sure to check your inboxes. If you don't get it, let me know, and I'll try sending it to you later. I may have missed you as well. My bad if I did.

Thanks Chaz (or should I say John?) Merry Christmas to you as well!

Yes, papelbon is a verb. It's when a ballclub has no closer, so they ruin a starter by turning him into a closer. Hence, "to Papelbon"

You're welcome. I hope you dig it.

guess what to Arod means???

OBSG,

To wear purple lipstick while tanning in central park?

i was thinking selfish butt, but i'll take that one.

I like to A-Rod. It's nice to tan up whilst rocking some grape-flavored gloss. Bung.

Curtly Ambrose signed a 1 year deal happy holidays.

who the **** is ambrose? a f'in cricket player ***??

Cute, a cricket bowler. That is awesome, bpark. ****-naise!

Is he left handed, bpark?

Does anyone here even know how to play Cricket? It looks like fun, but I have no clue.

The only exposure I have had to it was on "King Ralph". That scene was hilarious, BTW.

Keeping Chamberlainwouldbe a mistake by stunting his growth as a starting pitcher. He needs innings to develop as a pitcher not limitations as a well as develop a feel for pitching in the bigs. His talents are wasted as a setup man, while at the same time being "babied" in the pen. He is far more valuable in the rotation than someone like Messina who is done as a pitcher. He was drafted as a starter, and as such should be developed as one since that maximizes his value. I would rather have a pitcher in the rotation who has the talent, and potential to dominate for 7+ innings than a pitcherlike Messina who offers nothing, and most likely won't last an entire season, who will struggle in the postseason like he has done recently, and can't dominate a game.

One other thing, being left handed still isn't enough reason to jeopardize a team's future. Santana alone doesn't guarantee anything. While being left handed can't be ignored, neither does the injury factor. There's absolutely no guarantee that he won't guarantee he won't go down with a season-ending or a career-ending injury. If that happens this team will be screwed. Nope, being left handed still isn't worth the price of this team's future. Besides there will be left handers down the road the Yanks could go after (albeit they won't be as good as Santana). But the potential payoff from keeping players like Hughes, Kennedy and Cabrera can't be ignored.

Thanks for the e-mail chaz!!

Putting a young,strong arm in the rotation who can potentially dominate a game for 6 or 7 innings is far more smarter than leaving an old fart like Messina who is injury prone and is far less likely to put a quality start together. This guy is going to be a starter in the very near future, period. He needs to experience that sooner rather than later rather than "Babying" him in the pen, and limiting him as a pitcher. IF anything, he needs to work on his conditioning a little bit, and the best way to do that is have him throw innings as a starter. He's far too talented to waste in the pen.

cricket is the ultimate gentleman's sport, I studied about it in my anthro of sports class (haha yeah). The bowler must bowl a ball at the wickets defended by a battsman. The aim is to knock off the bails on top of the wickets, while the battsman is trying to batt a ball, when a ball is hit the battsman, and his teamate on the other side of a small area begin running back and forth between the two sets of wickets. Its kinda like pickle ball, with each sucessful pass is a run. The fielders must catch the ball in the air to make an out or the bowler muct not a bail off a wicket to make an out. The bowler is also expected (an unwritten rule) to bowl a hittable ball, look up the Bodyline scandall to see what happens when you dont. The games in test matches can take days, but there are also newer fast paced games that are a set number of innings. An innings (it's always plural) is when the team has batted around. Thats the basics, basically.

And I agree about Joba he's a starter keep him in the rotation and address the bullpen issues in other areas.

At last some mention of our game in Australia, cricket. I must admi when I first noticed the mention of the name Curtly Ambrose I thought where did that come from. I for a moment thought there was a pitcher of the same name. Curtly Ambrose a fast bowler ( pitcher ) from the West Indies was 7 foot and bowled consistently at 95 mph. The batsman is about 22 yards away and he was sccary both in looks and speed. All the same I wish baseball was more prominent here in Australia. If I had the money I would love to have three teams travel to Australia and play two three series at The MCG ( Our Yankee Stadium if you like ) except it seats 100,000. My guess it would sell out for the six games. If anyone out there want to assist with financing it would be superb as well as profitable )

Thanks for laying out the game for me. It does sound fun. Does the bowler throw the ball at the battsman on the fly, or does he throw it on a bounce?

I think it has to bounce but don't hold me to that, but a spinner bowler can throw come crazy stuff, kinda like junk balls in whiffel ball and some fast bowlers will just blow you away.

A fast bowler would run in from approximately twenty yards where he would bowl the ball using an overarm action but he is not allowed to bend the elbow in the deliverey. His objective in bowling to a batsman is to either hit what is the wicket ( three stumps a meter high either on the full or on the bounce if that makes sense or have a batsman hit the ball to one of ten fielders where objective would be to catch the ball on the full . I could go on but it may complicate matters. There is a web site called abc.cricket where I am sure you can view highlights of games or games being played that would be better for you to understand. If ever you are here

Bryan

Does anyone have access to Joba's minor-league stats? I'm not seeing them so far at a couple of sites.

What I'm kind of looking for is how many innings did he average per start or appearance there. I'm just trying to figure out how as a lifelong starter he suddenly has pacing and/or stamina problems?

I was wondering if they(the Joba Rules) were more deliberate in the sense of getting an idea how he fared versus Major League hitters moreso than his stamina... you know his poise and all that?

I see why we limit him to 2 innings and a days rest but is that just so we don't risk arm injury, since normally he'd be getting 4 days rest or so? Other than that, is there a real issue regarding his stamina over 6-7 in the bigs?

I too would like to see him in the rotation, definitely over Moose.

Then too, he so solidly fills the setup role that we could surely see the benefit of having there too. Do we foresee more value from him 3 innings or so every other day or once for 6-7 every 5? Depends on how each of those spots fare in his absence maybe? Hahahah drat!

It's either Kennedy and Moose in the rotation or Joba w/Moose or Kennedy in the pen as long relief.

I guess from the looks of it LaTroy is going to get the nod to start at Setup. That still looks good with Joba in and either Kennedy or Moose at long relief/spot starter.

I'm not all that comfortable with Hawkins... man isn't it time for spring training YET?!

We could use another arm for the bullpen. I wonder if we shouldn't set aside a spot in the bullpen for 2 long relief type guys. We can monitor the young arms in the rotation via using spot starters a few times per month. What do you guys think?

Does anybody think that maybe they'll use Joba as a long reliever until Moose chokes and then put him back in the rotation? While limiting Hughes, and Kennedy's innings and the fact that Moose will be a 5 innings pitcher Joba would get to work 2-4 innings more often and should see a good workload before being a starter again. I dono I don't really like it but it is the Weaver plan, and Joe G. used it in Florida with his younger pitchers there to some success.

Those of you so quick to trade Melky should consider this:

Since becoming the starting centerfielder, Melky has posted a .320 batting average. That's balls!

Knuteroc:

Over 40 innning in A, 40 in AA and 8 innings in AAA, joba was 9-2 with a 2.45 ERA, 135 SO's, 27 BB's, and held hitters to a .198 AVG. He averaged 5.6 innings per start, but thats cuz its the minor league. Hughes and kennedy went 5 or 6 innings too.

Joba has never thrown more than 120 innings in a season (~112 last year, and 118 in College one year). They've been talking about keeping innings down, so I would guess they would try to use him as a setup man for 2 months then move him into the rotation. That should keep his innings total to about 160.

For comparison, Ian Kennedy threw 160 innings last year and Hughes threw about 140 in 2006.

for minor leagues stats (including college) along with major league stats I found www.thebaseballcube.com

beat you to it cjpenny!!

Chaz thats a crazy stat, I flip flop on the Santana trade more then John Kerry but I'd miss the Melk Man the most. We can replace Kennedy (he's good to great but one out of the 25 RHP in the MiLB should pan out) but where on Earth will we get another CF like Melky. Also think of the crazy over the wall catches he's made, and I can think of two cathces in general:
1) In LF on a Manny bomb at the Stadium and

2) A great grab in the "Triangle" in Fenway last season on the run.

Melky's defence in very good and I always said it made up for his laco of offense but I should rephrase that, it make up for his lack of sheer power, .320 wow.

More reason to start giving him more innings, Yanks aren't doing him any favors by putting restrictions on him as pitcher. They are just hurting his development as a starter. Keeping him as a setup man does him no good.

The starters need to be kept in the starting rotation to establish, and maintain consistency as starters. Yanks shouldn't do anything to disrupt routine of young starters. I can see the Yanks going with Ohlendorf as a long reliever, being a former starter himself. Sanchez could be another pitcher used as a long reliever. Hawkins scares me, I wished they went after someone else.

Since when is centerfield a "power position" anyway? If you ask me, I would like to see this kid lose a few pounds and develop some more speed. If he could swipe 30 or so bases per season, hit .300, and take away runs from the opposition with that 120mm howitzer he has for an arm, I say that makes him a premiere talent in the AL. Ellsbury be damned!

PRAISE THE LORD CHAZ!!!! PREAAACHIN TO THE QUIRE!!!

*choir lol*

'08 Starting Rotation:

Wang

Pettitte

Hughes

Kennedy

Mussina and Chamberlain

Yes, AND Chamberlain, I would see this fits best if the theory that Joba's innings want to be kept down. Mussina and Chamberlain sharing the 5 hole would be the best fit, and it would keep the American League off balance, having Joba every 5 games and Mussina every 5 games. Keeps both arms fresh, the one that's 38 and the one that throws 98. Opinions? Ofcourse, this is all barring the Santana trade goes through, either way, I'm not crying. A rotation of:

Santana

Wang

Pettitte

Kennedy

Mussina and Chamberlain

is not bad either. :D, World Series here we come.

With Matt on this one. I say we let the kids pitch. If they're approaching an unhealthy amount of innings in August sometime, then maybe we start a 6 man rotation to slow the amount of innings they eat?

And thank you Chaz, for strengthening my love for Melky. I keep saying that this kid is gonna be a great CF for us for the next 10-15 years, and that stat sure helps my argument. Screw Santana!

Hey, for those of you who love MLB baseball video games, then get ready for the MOST realistic one yet. And I don't mean as in graphics, I meangameplay, which is what we've been waiting for... for a long time. Check it out, the features of the game will leave you wanting it now! :

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/sports/mlb08/news.html?sid=6183893&om_act=convert&om_clk=gsupdates&tag=updates;title;2

Man, I should be telemarketing! :D

I'm quite partial to MLB 2K7 myself, bdsouth. Aside from the insane amount of homerun robbing catches, its pretty realistic in game play and graphics. 2K8 comes out in a couple months, that should be sick!

Have you guys seen Clemens' new video denial? Ah, I want to believe him so badly, but I don't think I can.

Still, innocent until proven guilty I suppose. I think I might actually like to see a full blown trial with Clemens, so I can decide whether or not to like him...

Like everybody else I can’t wait for SP. But what about this scenario.
Every great ball players is looking for a championship. What if the best

hurler decides to take one for the team and stay for another year and

stinky MINI, and sign with the Yanks next off season.

any thought,

Frankygg68

Than